Odd "Glitch" with panel - 1997 Vista

[geminusprime]

So was doing some minor work today on the vista, had it started up and idling for about 1 hour.

Turned it off, waited 30 minutes, and cranked it up again. However, this time the gauges were either at zero or unresponsive - the battery and fuel gauge were at zero and never moved, the RPM was accurate, but the speedometer was sitting at 15 while not moving. Temp seemed right, air pressure did as well.

I turned it off, waited a few seconds, and then turned it to run but not start. Normally the gauges will go to zero, then all the way to max, wait a second, and then go to either zero or the current value. This time they didn't do that cycle, just went to the weird inaccurate values.

About 5 minutes of letting it idle, turning it off and back on, with and without engine start. Right as I was about to come on here and see what it was, I gave the dashboard the old tappin' and the gauges went back to accurate immediately. Turned it off, back on, and the correct cycle happened - zero, max, back to zero/accurate value.

Working perfectly again now.

But - is this common? Anyone elses gauges take a little tap to make them spool to the right value? Or is this something i want to take into a shop or look at myself, possibly a sign of a larger problem?

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by geminusprime

But - is this common? Anyone elses gauges take a little tap to make them spool to the right value? Or is this something i want to take into a shop or look at myself, possibly a sign of a larger problem?

Pretty sure it's a common problem with International instrument gauge clusters. There's repair videos on Youtube, maybe take a look there and see if it's something you can do yourself.

[BlackJohn]

Not sure what your cluster looks like but age takes its toll on connections to guages.
If you can open it up, check the plug in connectors for tightness or sloppiness. Try contact cleaner in the connectors as they will have tarnished over time, making bad contact.
Might be a separate ground for the whole board so has to be clean and tight, both there and wherever the ground point is.
Sometimes, low idle is rougher than high when vibrations seem to smooth out and better connectivity is achieved.

Might be wise to disconnect the batteries to do this as you may find other issues needing attention while you have it opened up. Can't be too careful.
Long idling periods like you tried are not beneficial. If you want to run for an hour go for a normal drive, then it will warm up properly and charge properly, hopefully. Always bug and glitches to contend with but yours do not seem serious. Could be looking at cold solder joints which will need to be reheated.
Hope you like your purchase.


John

[geminusprime]

Originally Posted by BlackJohn

Not sure what your cluster looks like but age takes its toll on connections to guages.
If you can open it up, check the plug in connectors for tightness or sloppiness. Try contact cleaner in the connectors as they will have tarnished over time, making bad contact.
Might be a separate ground for the whole board so has to be clean and tight, both there and wherever the ground point is.
Sometimes, low idle is rougher than high when vibrations seem to smooth out and better connectivity is achieved.

Might be wise to disconnect the batteries to do this as you may find other issues needing attention while you have it opened up. Can't be too careful.
Long idling periods like you tried are not beneficial. If you want to run for an hour go for a normal drive, then it will warm up properly and charge properly, hopefully. Always bug and glitches to contend with but yours do not seem serious. Could be looking at cold solder joints which will need to be reheated.
Hope you like your purchase.


John

Thanks. Did a bit of searching and found the type I have, turns out there is already a thread about it. Found it while searching google images - http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/re...ter-15382.html

From that and what you said, I'm guessing it's a issue with a connection somewhere from age, I'll get to resoldering what's needed, and probably cleaning what's going to turn out to be a very dirty pcb.

I'm also wanting to get either a raspi or arduino to display digital gauges, and need to split the output for what's on the gauge cluster. Hopefully I can do that from the instrument cluster itself and not from the various sensors themselves.

[BlackJohn]

keep us posted and maybe some pics of your work and findings. Could help those without the experience for sure. You sound like you know what you are doing.

I spent a lot of time going over my whole dash and panel switches etc. Lots of cleanup there and heater rebuilds , same year bus. You would be wise to go over all that with a fine tooth comb.


John